I
have a confession to make. It may come as a surprise
for some and a shock for others. Either way, be sure you’re
sitting down for
this one. Here it goes. I hate gear progression end-game
solutions… with a
passion. Rather than thinking millions of players disagree with me on
the basis
they love gear progression (in view of all those World of Warcraft
players), I
think they may just not be aware of the alternatives.

Before
WoW released, the top MMO of all time was
EverQuest with a stated peak of 500,000 players. World of Warcraft then
came
along and shattered that record, bringing millions of new MMO players
into the
fold. As a result, many player’s first experience with any
type of end-game was
WoW’s version – gear progression dungeon raids.
Just like virtually everyone
else in the States, I had multiple friends that had zero interest in
EverQuest,
Ultima Online, or Dark Ages of Camelot, become completely obsessed with
World
of Warcraft and its raiding system.

For
those unfamiliar with the phrase, a gear progression
dungeon raid system can be explained pretty easily. Players reach the
max level
of the game and then proceed to gather raid groups to enter dungeons
that have
difficult boss battles and very limited loot drops. These dungeons are
split
into various tiers, with players needing to get a significant portion
of each
tier’s armor sets before being able to progress to the next
tier. This is
accomplished by beating the various bosses within a specific dungeon
and
running that same dungeon over and over until they eventually get the
weapon and
armor upgrades they need.

As
I said, I’ve got plenty of friends that went nuts over
the game and raided regularly each week, often multiple nights during
that
week. Eventually (and by that, I mean it normally took a month or
three) they
were able to finally move up to the next dungeon tier and start the
whole
process over again. I congratulate them on their tenacity and
perseverance.
Personally, I can’t stand playing content more than a few
times. Doing the same
dungeon 20, 40, 50 times and praying that not only does the piece you
need
drop, but that you’re the one that actually ends up with
it… I can’t do it.

In
every game that has a gear progression system (or PvP
for that matter) as their end-game, I follow the exact same pattern. I
hit the
level cap and either quit right then or I may start an alt and horse
around for
a while before quitting. Despite what many players think though, this
gear
progression thing doesn’t need to be the way of the land.

Whether
it was because they thought it would be something
cool or realized early on that players were able to go through content
far
faster than they could produce it, the developers of EverQuest
eventually
introduced a new concept called the Alternate Advancement system.
Players may
not have been happy with gaining access to the moon of Norrath with the
Shadows
of Luclin expansion, but they were thrilled with the AA system when it
was up
and running. As characters over level 51 progressed, they could earn AA
points.
The player was in control over how much of their regular experience
went
towards this new XP pool. They were then able to spend those points on
a staggering
variety of added abilities
and character upgrades.

This
allowed those players under the level cap to expand
the abilities and uniqueness of their characters as much or as little
as they
wanted. Once players reached the level cap, they’d shift 100%
of their XP
towards earning AA points. This meant that players could still run the
exorbitant
amount of content that was scattered all over Luclin and Norrath
without
feeling as though it was for nothing. Rather than pigeonholing players
into playing
non-dungeon content for nothing, it allowed players to continue to play
as they
had been.

One
of my biggest complaints about gear progression
end-game systems is that at their root, they’re changing the
rules of the game.
Once a player reaches the level cap, they no longer progress at all
without
running raid dungeon content. For some, this may not be an issue. For
me, it’s
a huge one. Don’t let me play a game for 50 levels the way I
want (wandering
around the land, doing some quests, grinding out some mobs when the
mood hits
me, hitting the occasional 5-man dungeon) and then when I reach the
level cap
tell me there’s no point in doing that anymore.

Don’t
get me wrong… for those that want to do nothing but
raid the same dungeons over and over as you eventually eke your way
into the
next one, go for it. I understand the thrill players get from large
scale
fights that require an extreme amount of skill, coordination, and
teamwork. I’m
not seeking to take any of that away from players either. What I do
want to see
happen though is for more companies to add some form of an alternate
advancement system so players like myself aren’t forced to
suddenly quit
playing or conform to the new rules at level cap.

What
do you think? Am I just a cranky old
bastard that refuses to let go of the past or is there room for both
systems to
breath in games today? Let me know in the comments below or
href="https://twitter.com/Dalmarus">hit me up on
Twitter!